Hello there, im thinking of getting together a few glassblowers that are interested in being part of a hot shop to be set up at this years burning man. It would be easy to facilitate... everything could run off of propane tanks that are easily and safely stored. It would take some investment in buying the fuel but i have access to much of the equipment and tools needed for the set-up. The only task would be creating/finding an annealer that runs off of propane. If anyone is interested atall or has a solution to any of these questions please respond. Free free to e-mail me as well.... dropsofsand@hotmail.comnamaste

At very worst, you could always use a basin of vermiculite to anneal/cool.. possibly even use a large aluminum turkey pan that is gently warmed by propane burners/single burner camp stoves. I would try and keep it as simple as possible and not drag out the whole kiln and all. If you're intent on going full on, just bring a small 110v crucible style kiln and run it off a generator.

The other issue other than the propane would of course be the oxygen which gets used at like a 4:1 ratio over the propane. Do you have that many cylinders to blow through? I'd say that in order for "a few glassblowers" to work, you would need at least one per artist.

This is assuming that by "glassblowers" you really meant "lampworkers"..

On another note.. while I totally commend you for having the idea, it sounds to me like the whole production when all said and done may be more of a PITA than you think. I know when I'm at my burn, I'm way to into getting out and doing things I don't normally do rather than bring my defaultia world with me. Hell, I lugged my 40 lb djembe across the country this last time with the full intent of drumming while I was there and ended up not even taking it out of the case once.

As with everythying, just make sure to evaluate all sides of things well in order to avoid a facepalm situation.

Lampworkers will still use an annealer to strengthen any beads... Historical beads don't generally tend to have the extra process, but it make a hell of a difference to the strength. I've been toying with the idea of having my beadmaker do a proper roman setup with hand blown bellows... but the modern customer wants something that has the extra durability I suppose. It actually seems to make the surface more uniform too

I've done beads, I've done fusing, and I've done a little bit with a glory hole. They all need to be annealed. Glass is a very poor conductor of heat and it expands and contracts as it warms and cools. If it doesn't cool evenly it will break. If you don't believe me, take a glass you don't care for, fill it with cold water and put it in a basin of hot water. Kids today who grew up with dishwashers have missed this great science experiment.
You can get away with not annealing beads because they are small, but they do benefit from a slow cooler. The longest annealment I've heard of is the telescope mirror they were making that was made out of boro-silicate and that they annealed for three months. They had to take it real slow, because anythign that large with cracks that travel like the do in glass, well, it's not a pretty picture.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

dropsofsand wrote:Hello there, im thinking of getting together a few glassblowers that are interested in being part of a hot shop to be set up at this years burning man. It would be easy to facilitate... everything could run off of propane tanks that are easily and safely stored. It would take some investment in buying the fuel but i have access to much of the equipment and tools needed for the set-up. The only task would be creating/finding an annealer that runs off of propane. If anyone is interested atall or has a solution to any of these questions please respond. Free free to e-mail me as well.... dropsofsand@hotmail.comnamaste

Am I the only one who is wondering how much junk mail you're going to get by posting your email addy? Eplaya has PM's you know.

glad to see some activity on here,,,, the setup i was thinking of doing would be a soft-glass furnace and glory hole set up. The idea of annealing might get thrown out the window and replaced with recycling everything that is made...leaving a feeling of art in the moment....perhaps? ...good point that it might just be alot of lugging equipment around...but i feel it might be fulfilling....to give something that is an art that can be observed and happens to light up in the night seems a strong reason to devote some energy. anyway keep the eye-deas flowing everyone.

dropsofsand wrote:The idea of annealing might get thrown out the window and replaced with recycling everything that is made...leaving a feeling of art in the moment....perhaps?

People will want to keep stuff. Even if it's just a blob. You might think of a way to create something really easy in advance that you can give as gifts.

Something that could be made in advance would solve the annealing issue. The other option is to make something on the playa that's not designed to be worn- a coin or something that people can put in their memory box or shrine.

It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist

junglesmacks wrote:This is assuming that by "glassblowers" you really meant "lampworkers"..

Heh, I assumed the opposite, especially since he talked about needing an annealer, which I'm pretty sure lampworkers don't need.

Noooo my fine friend.. lampworking yes (sort of) requires annealing due to thermal expansion, and especially as the piece gets more complex. A disclaimer: I was/am a pipe/bong/bubbler/useful art maker since 95, so my experience has been with larger and more complex works of "art". For smaller things such as spoon pipes, beads, whatevs.. as long as you are evenly heating things up and really melting the shit out of them, you can get away with not using a kiln. For anything bigger, it will crack almost every time due to so much surface area of glass cooling at different rates.

But.. you can use vermiculite in a pinch since it evenly heats up and keeps a nice blanket of warmth around the piece. What you don't want is anything cooling down too fast or unevenly..

dropsofsand wrote:Hello there, im thinking of getting together a few glassblowers that are interested in being part of a hot shop to be set up at this years burning man. It would be easy to facilitate... everything could run off of propane tanks that are easily and safely stored. It would take some investment in buying the fuel but i have access to much of the equipment and tools needed for the set-up. The only task would be creating/finding an annealer that runs off of propane. If anyone is interested atall or has a solution to any of these questions please respond. Free free to e-mail me as well.... dropsofsand@hotmail.comnamaste

Can you melt a little bit of playa dust into glass? I don't mean digging holes, but maybe shaking off what accululates on everything and mixing with molten glass.

I knew a glassblower or whatever he called himself in Connecticut who made all sorts of crazy stuff. He had large wooden bins full of color-sorted broken glass.

Chemically, will playa dust work? That may be sort of fun to have a tangible bit of Burnign Man, after one cleans the dust from one's ass crack and ears.

"I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway."Jesus fuckhole, what the fuck was that?"Playa dust might be the cleanest, most corrosive filth you'll ever love," Savannah said.

Hey! I'm Kim! I'm planning on bringing out just a hot head to flamework with some boro and put playa dust inside hollow pendants to give out as gifts.

I'll be at Gnome Camp/Sparky with some old schoolers, but it's my first year, so don't want to commit to a huge set up, and I've been advised not to, which is probably a good plan...

I'd be more than happy to come help out if our stars align though. I have experience building furnaces, but not annealers... I'm going to poke around in my glass circles and try and find a go at some answers for you. I'm definitely a do-er though, so hopefully we can work this out. Blowing glass in the desert sounds heavenly.